It’s October already, and where has the time gone?  Fall is in full swing and I’m loving the breezy and semi-chilly weather.  Time to bust out the hoodies and get the camera lenses polished for some spectacular fall foliage photography.  October is a great time for foodies as it’s time to celebrate the following  food events!

Celebrate October!

Source:  foodreference.com

The folks over at Serious Eats put a bunch of affordable extra virgin olive oils to the test.  Most bottles hovered around the $10.00 price range and the test was conducted by either the bread-dipping technique or by consuming a spoonful.  Out of the 9 kinds of olive oil tested, the award for best all-around olive oil went to Whole Food’s 365 Organic Extra Virgin Olive Oil.  I can tell you that it’s a great olive oil as I have been using it for the past year.  It just seems to strike the right balance amongst flavor, texture, and price.  Check out the rest of the test results here.

Did you know that you should get your leftovers in the refrigerator in as little as 2 hours?  I wish I knew that several years ago when I ate the turkey that was sitting on the counter for 3 days.  Needless to say, my digestion system paid dearly for that.  Watch the video at the jump from ‘The Today Show’ on how to manage your leftovers.

Here are the 4 golden rules to follow as noted from the video:

• Get leftovers in the fridge fast
• Refrigerate up to 4 days , freeze for long storage
• Defrost in fridge, not on counter
• Thoroughly heat leftovers

Let’s face it, with our busy schedules and hectic lifestyles, it’s difficult to set a good amount of time aside to cook a great meal.  Believe it or not, it can be done, and the article ‘9 Ways to Cook Lazily and Still Get Rave Reviews’ from Dumb Little Man shows us how.

Like many people you’re super busy these days. However, you appreciate the fact that eating out a lot costs a ton and frankly, it’s tough to find restaurants where you completely feel at ease with the ingredients. So how do you balance this? How do you create homemade meals without spending oodles of time cooking? Clearly you’d agree that your schedule cannot tolerate hours of chopping, stirring and simmering on weeknights.
Before expanding your schedule, reducing sleep, or giving into fast food demons, try using these tricks; you can turn out delicious meals with minimum effort.

• Cook from frozen
  Most meats don’t need to be thawed before cooking. Boneless chicken breasts or tenders can be grilled, baked or put in the slow cooker straight from the freezer. You can even bread chicken tenders without thawing by running them under cool water to remove the ice glaze, then bread as usual. Fish fillets, such as Tilapia can also be cooked from frozen. Even roasts and larger cuts of meat can be done this way. Pop it in a pan and add the sauce or seasonings, then give them a longer cooking time.
• Slow cook it
  There are many excellent recipes specifically for crock pots; they aren’t just for soups and stews. Or convert your favorite dishes for use in the slow cooker. Sliding into dinner time with the food already cooked and waiting to be dished up is a satisfying feeling.
• Skip the measuring
  Pour a teaspoon of salt in the palm of your hand. Now try a tablespoon. Learning to eyeball measurements on herbs and spices will save you time in putting a dish together. These ingredients can be added to taste, so exactness is not necessary.
• Combine Steps
  Why sauté onion and garlic separate from ground beef, when you can do it all together? Why cook veggies separate from the pasta, when you can throw them into the water during the last few minutes of cooking? Fewer steps mean less time and work for you.
• Skip Steps
  In some recipes it’s possible to skip things such as browning meat. Yes, it might seal in the juices, but if its final destination is in a slow cooker it will be juicy enough. Skip the cracker or bread crumb toppings on casseroles and save not only time, but calories too.
• Use your freezer
  Cook up several pounds of chicken or ground beef on the weekends, then freeze it to use later in the week. Simmer a big pot of soup one night and freeze the rest for a quick meal later. Double that batch of muffins and pop half into the freezer. All of these tricks speed up the meal prep.
• Use certain convenience items
  Go for shredded cheese instead of in a block. Canned diced tomatoes taste better than most grocery store tomatoes. Better still, they are already chopped. Frozen diced onions and green peppers also save time. Instead of chopping and cooking fresh veggies for a stew or potpie, grab a bag of frozen stew vegetables. It’s not quite as good as cooking from fresh, but the difference is not enough to offset the time saved. And you get those little pearl onions in the bargain.
• Choose recipes with only a few ingredients
  Using only 3 or 5 ingredients is much faster than gathering and preparing a long list of things. I reject most recipes with loads of ingredients, at least for weeknight dinners.
• Keep it simple
  Every weekday meal doesn’t need to involve a main dish, 2 sides, bread and a dessert. Dinners like chicken fried rice or homemade nachos don’t need much to go with them. If you do need something to round out the meal, add a simple steamed veggie, tossed salad or fresh fruit.

By using these tricks, you’ll be able to get dinner on the table in a flash. Just think of all the ways you can use the time you’ve gained.

Written on 9/25/2009 by Tiffany King. Tiffany helps busy families get dinner on the table by sharing recipes, tips and menus with complete grocery lists on her blog Eat at Home.

Let’s face it, as mighty as the ‘Incredible, Edible, Egg’ is, hard boiling one is an entirely different subject matter.  Cooking one egg isn’t easy, and cooking a whole lot?  Well, consistency from one egg to another might be difficult to come by.  I came across two methods for cooking up a mass of hard-boiled eggs.

The first method involves baking (yes, baking)  the eggs for half an hour at 325 degrees.  Full instructions can be found here.

The second method involves boiling the eggs quickly, covering and removing the pot from heat, and letting them cook in the residual heat for 17-20 minutes, depending on the size of the eggs.  I’ve cooked eggs using this method and the results are pretty consistent and as close to a perfect hard-boiled egg can get.  Take heed though, it seems like there are some serious requirements to meet in cooking a great hard-boiled egg.  Instructions here.

Flaky, yet firm.  Mild yet flavorful.  Plentiful and sustainable.  Farmed rainbow trout is a great fish to include in the weekly diet, but many home cooks tend to avoid it because thin filets of fish can be intimidating to cook.  Either the fish results in being too dry, or it breaks up into pieces before it ends up on the plate.  Rainbow trout is available year-long in most supermarkets and filets usually weigh in at around 4 ounces, which is a perfect serving size.  While baking is a viable method, nothing beats pan-searing. There’s something about getting the skin turn golden brown and crispy.  Here are some of my tips.

1. Don’t cook the fish right out of the refrigerator, instead, cook it when the flesh is cool to the touch, not cold.
2. Spray the skin side with a bit of cooking spray, season the other side, and spray with cooking spray.
3. Heat up 1 tsp of olive oil in a wide stainless steel pan over low heat.  Coat the pan well.
4. Cook the fish on the skin side first.
5. Cook the fish on low heat, 3 minutes each side, or until the flesh turns opaque.
6. Flip once!
7. If the fish sticks to the pan, carefully nudge it loose from the sides with a flat spatula.

Go ahead, give it a try.  No practice needed, and easy to master.

Kin

Insurance.com released its list of the 10 most dangerous foods to eat while driving.  While driving distractions these days focus one talking and texting on a mobile device, it’s easy to overlook food as a distraction.

Here’s the top ten breakdown from the site:

1. Coffee – Even in cups with travel lids, somehow the liquid finds its way out of the opening each time you hit a bump.
2. Hot soup – Many people drink it like coffee and run the same risks.
3. Tacos – Any food that can disassemble itself will leave your car looking like a salad bar.
4. Chili Dogs – The potential for drips and slops down the front of clothing is significant.
5. Hamburgers – From the grease of the burger to ketchup and mustard, it could all end up on your hands, your clothes, and the steering wheel.
6. Barbecued food – Ditto. The sauce may be great, but if you have to lick your fingers, the sauce will end up on whatever you touch – and that wheel will be tough to grip.
7. Fried chicken – Another food that leaves you with greasy hands, which means constantly wiping them on something, even if it’s your shirt.
8. Jelly donuts – Have you eaten a jelly donut without some of the center oozing out? It’s simply not possible.
9. Soft drinks – Not only are they subject to spills, but also the carbonated kind can fizz as you’re drinking if you make sudden movements, and most of us remember cola fizz in the nose from childhood. It isn’t any more pleasant now.
10. Chocolate – Like greasy foods, chocolate coats the fingers as it melts, leaving its mark anywhere you touch. As you try to clean it off the steering wheel you’re likely to end up swerving.

I didn’t see pizza on the list, so I guess it’s semi-safe to install one of these in-car pizza ovens.  Nothing like steaming hot pizza on the road.

The problem that I face has plagued me for many years.  After a good three-minute bath in the microwave, the rice still remains soft and the broccoli stays crunchy, but the chicken is one step away from turning into jerky.  I even substituted white meat with dark meat for a while, but I really wanted a lunch that was lighter on cholesterol and saturated fat.

Long story short, I was watching a cooking show where this Japanese guy was coating chicken in flour before he put it into boiling water to cook.  He didn’t explain why he did it, but it did strike my curiosity.

Some days ago, I decided to give it a try.  After a few days of doing so, I can tell you that not only does coating the meat in flour produce a more tender cooked cut of chicken breast, but it also helps seal in the moisture, especially if you plan on reheating it in the microwave the next day.  Update: whole wheat white flour works better than all purpose flour.

So here’s what I did:

I marinated 2 pieces of chicken breast (cut into cubes) with salt, pepper, garlic powder, a splash of sake, chopped garlic, and extra virgin olive oil.  I marinated the meat for about an hour in the refrigerator.

Next I boiled a pot of water.  You don’t need too much water, just enough to cover the meat.  Lightly coat the chicken in flour.  I used whole wheat flour because it’s healthier than white flour.  The pieces on the left side are coated just right, the pieces on the right had a little too much flour.  You want to lightly coat the meat because when it is used in sautés, it prevents loose flour bits from caking up.   Just use less flour next time if you notice too much flour runoff. When the water boils, reduce the heat to medium high and slowly place the floured chicken into the water.  Cook for 4 minutes.

Remove the chicken  and set aside.  Now the chicken is ready to be added to sautés.

I like to sauté chicken with chopped garlic and onions, with a bit of black pepper and salt, and kissed with a touch of fresh lemon juice.  Simple is best sometimes.

Set on a bed of basmati rice and garnished with a few baby greens.  Well, there’s lunch!

I read this article on Tipnut and I had to give it a try.  You know what, it actually works.  I used lemons and my fridge smells nice and fresh when I open it.

Here’s a neat tip sent in by Paulina for one of the most natural and easiest to make air fresheners I’ve come across yet…

I picked this tip up from a local newspaper some years ago and I’ve been using it ever since, I just love the smell of oranges:

• Cut an orange in half and remove the pulp;
• Fill the empty shell with some salt;
• Put in the back of your fridge as a fridge freshener;
• Keep the orange shell in a small bowl so it won’t tip over and spill the salt.

The salt absorbs stale and nasty odors while the shell releases a fresh, orange smell. I also tuck one of these behind the toilet in our bathroom.

Another way you can do this is cut an orange in half and coat the exposed flesh liberally with salt. Since we love eating oranges I always remove the pulp first.

This would also work for other citrus fruits like lemons and grapefruits.

A steak dinner costs upward of $75 at some of the upscale steakhouses in town.

For a fraction of the price, why not treat yourself to the same meal at home?

“The big thing is to start with something good and prepare it right,” said John Williams, owner of Weiland’s Gourmet Market in the Clintonville neighborhood.

Buying a high-quality steak is key, but finding the best cut isn’t always easy. Cuts from the loin and rib section of a cow — strip steaks and rib-eyes, for example — make the best steaks. Yet other factors, too, should be considered.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture grades meat based on the age and marbling, or internal fat. The top cuts — Prime, Choice and Select — are clearly marked on the packaging. The grade is nearly as important as the cut, said Jamie Purviance, author of Weber’s Way To Grill.

“Most of the steaks you’ll find in supermarkets are graded Choice or Select, and the steaks you’ll find in the best steakhouses are Prime,” Purviance said. “I recommend staying away from Select steaks, as they are just too dry for grilling. And not all Choice steaks are necessarily great.”

Steaks can be further “branded” to suggest quality.

Williams, for example, sells a brand called Swift 1855 at Weiland’s that’s all Choice and top-quality, he said. Another brand commonly found at supermarkets is Certified Angus Beef.

The look of meat, Purviance said, can hint at its quality.

“Choose the ones with a coarse marbling of milky white fat,” he said. “The flesh should be a rich pink or light cherry color. If you see any with a deep red or brown colors, it could mean that those steaks came from older, tougher animals. And the surface should be moist but not wet or sticky.”

Once the meat has been selected, the preparation becomes crucial.

Forming a good crust on the steak is all-important, Purviance said.

“One good habit that separates steakhouse chefs from many home cooks is that the chefs spend more time searing their steaks,” he said. “They understand that searing develops literally hundreds of flavors and aromas on the surface of steak, so they let their steaks sizzle over direct heat until the surfaces are dark, dark brown.

“Don’t let anyone tell you that searing ‘locks in the juices.’ That’s a myth. But searing sure does make steak tasty.”

Other recommendations from Purviance:

• Let the meat stand at room temperature for 20 to 30 minutes before cooking.

“If the steak is too cold when it hits the grill, the interior might require so much cooking time to reach that perfect doneness that the steak overcooks deep below the surface, turning gray and dry.”

• Season the meat for 20 to 30 minutes before cooking. Salt draws out some of the moisture, then dissolves into it.

“When the steak hits the hot grate, the sugars and proteins in the moisture combine with the salt and other seasoning to create a delicious crust,” Purviance said.

• For those who like a really thick steak — steakhouse steaks are often 1 1/2 inches thick or more — try the “sear and slide” method.

“After you have seared both sides, slide the steaks to a part of the grill that is not so hot, perhaps over indirect heat, and finish cooking them safely there,” Purviance said.

He also noted that many restaurant chefs sear steaks on the grill, then finish them in the oven so the surface doesn’t burn while the inside reaches the desired temperature.

A great steak, of course, needs suitable accompaniments. Our suggested side dishes: a baked potato, Romaine Salad With Blue Cheese Dressing and crispy Oven-Baked Onion Rings.

robin.davis@dispatch.com